SPECIALIST police officers who protect nuclear materials in the UK have lost their High Court challenge over a new pension scheme which could make them work until they are 65.

Armed police officers who patrol the Sellafield site could be made to work five years longer than other officers after losing a high court challenge yesterday.

The Civil Nuclear Police Federation said that the change, due in April, would leave the Civil Nuclear Constabulary "out of step" with the vast majority of other officers.

<strong> Read more here. </strong>

A hearing, which took place last week, asked for a declaration that the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) were "members of a police force" for the purposes of the Public Service Pensions Act 2013 and that their pension age must be 60 like most other officers.

However, Mrs Justice Nicola Davies dismissed the claim yesterday.

Do you agree? Should nuclear police officers receive the same treatment as other officers?

It was argued that the operational demands on officers in other territorial forces were much more variable and there were likely to be posts they could move to if they did not meet the highest standards.

But that did not apply to the CNC, who were intended to be a 100 per cent firearms capability force and had to maintain the highest standards.

Distinguishing between them and other territorial forces was unnecessary and produced an unreasonable result, said counsel.

Civil Nuclear Police Federation (CNPF) chief executive Nigel Dennis has said that it was almost physically impossible for a CNC officer to serve beyond 60.

<strong> Find out more here. </strong>

John Cavanagh QC added: "However, for the purposes of this judicial review application, this is beside the point. "The defendant has no discretion as regards the normal retirement age which will apply in future to CNC officers, and the new pension scheme which will apply to CNC officers must comply with the requirements of Section 10 of the 2013 Act.

"Section 10 requires that the normal pension age for CNC officers must be the state pension age or 65, whichever is higher."

The judge ruled that the members of the CNC were not "members of a police force" for the purposes of Section 10 of the 2013 Act.

In her judgment, she said that counsel for the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, who was an interested party in the case, had informed the court that it was Parliament's intention that within the meaning of the 2013 Act the police forces should be confined to territorial forces, as contemplated by the Police Act 1996.

Counsel had said that no final decision had been made as to what would be the terms of the future pension scheme to be applied to the CNC. The provisions of such a scheme would be subject to the constraints of legislation.